With increasingly widespread deployment of advanced wireless mobile networks, such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) architectures, these networks are replacing wired networks as the main access networks of choice. Wireless mobile network architectures generally include a radio access portion, a core network portion, and in at least some instances, an analysis or monitoring portion. Each of the different wireless network portions, in turn, includes one or more nodal functions that collectively support delivery of various services to equipment of mobile users, or subscribers.
The nodal functions are generally defined independently, e.g., by applicable 3GPP standards. In addition to the nodal functions, interface boundaries are also defined by the standards to support interactions between the different nodal functions. This standardization approach has promoted a multi-vendor environment, in which different equipment developers and/or vendors develop different equipment, i.e., “boxes,” that adhere to particular nodal function(s). Consequently, this approach has resulted in organizational partitions at virtually every level, e.g., from development to marketing, sales and support.